Zombies

Regular readers of this blog know my position on the mainstream media (MSM) all too well. In the view of most rational, objective observers, the MSM has exhibited unrepentant, left-leaning political bias, coupled with fawning adoration of the current President, coupled with a surprising lack of curiosity about a long list of scandals and poor policy decisions that would cause a media uproar if they occurred under of republican president. The MSM selectively edits the news, removing any story that might reflect badly on this White House and this president. It has become a propaganda arm for the Obama administration.

Although it might sound outrageous at first blush, over the past five years the MSM has become analogous to Pravda—the duplicitous state run media that was the mouthpiece of the now defunct Soviet Union.

Rather than providing an adversarial voice that (to use a phrase beloved by the left) 'speaks truth to power,' the MSM is complicit in assisting the powerful in their efforts to stonewall the truth, distract and divide the American public, and gaslight those who ask unpleasant questions. The MSM has ruined its reputation as objective arbiters of the American scene and in doing so, has done an enormous disservice to the American people.

Ironically, the MSM has also done an enormous disservice the Barack Obama, a fantasy figure that it helped to construct in 2008 and now works so hard to protect. Richard Fernandez comments:

The mainstream media is one of the biggest liabilities of the administration. It allows it to lie to itself; to continue believing that everything is alright long after the last person will have moved out of its decaying cities. The media lets Washington bury its mistakes in print. But as we well know in this Age of Zombies, anything buried that ain’t dead will walk the earth again.

Indeed, when fantasy and delusion run head-on into reality, it is reality that ultimately prevails.

Barack Obama and his MSM allies can tell the American public that every scandal is phony, that economic growth can be fostered by income redistribution, that serious foreign policy blunders are, well, just business as usual. They can characterize the fantasy Obama as a victim of meany GOP pols, and never question his inept, divisive leadership. They can look the other way at places like Detroit, never probing to better understand why this bankrupt blue city is in such severe trouble. They can gaslight political opponents and critics alike, and they can bury poor administration decisions, policies and scandals to protect their fantasy president. But in the end "anything buried that ain’t dead will walk the earth again."